The Importance of Being Earnest Workbook Unit

I created this resource as a way to facilitate higher-order thinking and reading skills for one of my favorite plays, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. My students love this play for its humor and satirical qualities, so I created this unit to really engage their thinking beyond conventional study guides that rarely provide anything thinking beyond comprehension. The critical theories analyses not only engage students in analyzing, connecting, criticizing, and applying, but they also work great as in-class lessons; research, writing, and discussing practice; and higher-order formative assessments leading to a culminating higher-order fully editable summative assessment. (Please note the summative assessment is the only editable component in this unit.)

This unit includes extensive contextual connections through passage analysis. Therefore, it is a great supplement to reading the play, or it can be used as a way to introduce students to text while watching the film.

Contextual Vocabulary Study:

The unit includes 15 contextual vocabulary words with a Q & A section to empower students to connect the meanings of these words to new contexts. Not only does the Q & A provide a great means for discussion, it also helps students go beyond memorizing definitions. They will be challenged to learn the word as a concept and apply the word to different contexts in both the Q & A practice and the exam.

Guided Reading (or Viewing) Questions:

These three guides can be given as a group or distributed individually for each Act. They are designed to supplement reading or watching for formative assessment to check for comprehension.

Critical Theories Analysis:

There are five perspective analyses that accompany this critical thinking study: Formalist (word study and guided reading questions for Acts 1, 2, and 3), Reader Response, Social, Historical, and Aesthetic and Gender. These formative assessments provide students with opportunities to write, discuss, and research the play and the Victorian Period from multiple perspectives. Each analysis is accompanied with a passage or two to include text-based analysis.

Exam:

An editable exam is included as both a Word Document and a Google Form. It includes 15 critical reading questions fully aligned with the analyses in the unit, 15 context-based vocabulary multiple choice questions, and three open-ended questions aligned with the critical analysis study. An answer key and explanations for each question are included.

Suggested Answer Key:

The unit includes suggested answers or example answers for each question, prompt, or task in the unit.

Unit Guide:

An example unit guide is included to help you with scope and sequence while planning your unit. On the guide, you will find detailed notes for setting up, organizing, planning, and teaching your unit.

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